Moderna vaccine delivered in Sask.'s northern half

The Moderna vaccine started flowing through the blood vessels of people in the northern half of Saskatchewan as the province reported five more Covid-19-related deaths.

The first Moderna vaccines were delivered on Tuesday morning to registered nurse Brittany Favel in Ile-a-la-crosse and her grandfather, Jimmy Favel, who lives in an Ile-a-la-crosse long-term care home.

Ile-a-la-crosse Mayor Duane Favel said the village's first vaccinations were “exciting and emotional,” not just because the first recipients happened to be his elderly father and niece, a coincidence, he stressed.

“As northern leaders ... our biggest concern has always been our long-term care residents, our elderly, our community residents with underlying health issues. These were the people who were being impacted the most and had the greatest possibility of losing their lives,” Favel said.

“My biggest fear is that we're going to start losing elders at a high rate to COVID-19. And that's gone on for the past eight months.”

The community of around 1,600 about 300 kilometres northwest of Prince Albert has endured two outbreaks since November, Favel said. He said he hopes that seeing the first vaccinations will ease anxieties about the vaccine.

The Moderna vaccine has proved easier to transport than the Pfizer-biontech vaccine, which requires storage at -70 C.

Vaccinations also began Tuesday morning in the northern village of La Loche, the site of one of the worst outbreaks in Canada last spring.

The five deaths reported in the province on Tuesday, all people aged 80 or older, boosted the total number who have died from Covid-related issues to 165 in Saskatchewan. Two deaths were reported in the Regina zone and one each from the north central zone, north east and south central.

The province added 153 new cases and 120 recoveries, which helped increase active cases to 3,057. Most of the new cases, 39, were located in the Regina zone, followed by 33 in the Saskatoon zone.

The Regina zone leads all zones with 630 active cases, followed by the north central zone with 561 actives, including 360 in the city of Prince Albert.

The Saskatoon zone, which has led in active cases throughout most of the pandemic, dipped to 395 active cases on Tuesday. The north west zone, which includes North Battleford and Lloydminster, had 394 active cases; the vast, sparsely populated far north east zone had 347 active cases.

The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 dropped to 166, with 31 receiving intensive care.

The province processed 1,779 tests on Monday, which translates to a positivity rate of 8.6 per cent with 153 new cases.

The seven-day average for new cases rose slightly to 214. Total COVID-19 cases rose to 16,520.

The province has delivered 4,254 vaccine doses, 241 more than reported on Monday.

The pilot project to inject healthcare workers with vaccines is complete in Regina and 90 per cent complete in Saskatoon, according to the province. Those health-care workers are expected to receive their second dose of vaccine soon.

Vaccines are expected to arrive in Prince Albert this week to immunize health-care workers and care home residents.

Meanwhile, the Northern Inter-tribal Health Authority (NITHA) declared a COVID-19 outbreak on Tuesday in the northern community of Stanley Mission due to family gatherings on Christmas and New Year's Eve.

NITHA medical health officer Dr. Nnamdi Ndubuka said in an email that cases have been linked to three family gatherings, but did not specify how many cases. Contact tracing has begun and surge capacity in the health-care system has been activated, he said.

NITHA is working with the Lac La Ronge Indian Band and the Saskatchewan Health Authority to contain the outbreak, Ndubuka said.

Stanley Mission is a community of about 2,000 people northeast of La Ronge.